Mission

The present mission of the CHPB is delivering up to date training, research, information services in support of National, Provincial and Local level public and private sector agencies and individuals, who are involved in the planning and management of activities in the broad areas of human settlements, urban infrastructure, urban development.

 The Centre for Housing Planning and Building (CHPB) is a Training and Research Centre of the Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction, which was established in 1979 with a grant from the Government of the Netherlands. The main objective of the centre was providing mid-career training to professionals, administrators and other personnel involved in the housing and building development programmes in Sri Lanka. In these activities initially the CHPB collaborated with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) of Rotterdam of the Netherlands. When the Netherlands grant ceased in 1982 CHPB continued to function as a division of the Ministry, partly financed from a government grant and partly by the course fees levied.

The importance of the mid-career training conducted by the CHPB was recognized by the government and this led to the establishment of the CHPB as a formal training and research institution approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on a permanent basis as a special division of the Ministry, with an annual treasury grant for salaries and recurrent expenditure. Over the years CHPB has expanded its activities to cater to the training needs generated by a wide range of new programmes. Presently these activities serve some of the needs of other Ministries, the private sector and the requirements of individuals as well.

CHPB has earned itself a name in its areas of activities by conducting many programmes for local professionals as well as those from the region, with the sponsorship of foreign funding agencies. These agencies included Asian Productivity Organization (APO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNCHS, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Rotterdam, the Netherlands, UNICEF and DANIDA.

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Other relevant Activities handled by CHPB

CHPB has linkages with and participates in various other activities of the ministry, constriction industry, housing and related agencies, and also some activities in the region, some of which are listed below:

• Participation as a member in the HABITAT steering committee activities
• Organisation of the exhibition of Best Practices in Human Settlements as a preparatory activity of HABITAT II conference
• Participation in Workshops organised by the ministry for formulation of Housing and Urban Development policies
• Member of the Steering committee for the preparation of Bio-diversity action Plan of the Ministry of environment and Women’s Affairs
• Member of the Network of Training and Research Institutes in Human settlements in Asia and the Pacific (TRISHNET); participated in its workshops Human Settlements Database in Asia and the Pacific; contributing to its Newsletter.
• Activities of the National Construction Contractors Association of Sri Lanka

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Strengths

• Wide range of experience as an institution in variety of fields.
• Spacious infrastructure.
• Equipped air-conditioned training rooms.
• Qualified and experienced external faculty.
• Dedicated staff with customer focused values.
• Residential facilities.
• Computerized systems.
• Central location.
• Ancillary services.
• Ample parking.
• Simple administrative requirements (for public/private) and hence less hassles.

CHPB has an in-house staff strength of about 12 and a visiting faculty of approximately 60 professionals and specialists from the field and universities.

	Director
Dy.Director(Tech.)	Dy.Director(UDLIHP)	Dy.Director(Housig)
Training Officer (1)		Planning assistant (1)	Administrative Officer
		Deve. Assistant(4)	Cleark(1)
			Typist(1)
			Stenographer(1)
			Training computer operators(0)
			peons(3)